A ā??thanksgivingā? on March 31 in Kampala after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed an anti-gay legislation. / Ronald Kabuubi, epa

by Louise Branson, USATODAY

by Louise Branson, USATODAY

When U.S. actor Forest Whitaker played the role of Uganda's murderous 1970s dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 movie The Last King of Scotland, he traveled to Uganda to better understand the character. He absorbed the role so brilliantly that many Ugandans who saw him thought the dictator had returned. Whitaker summed up what he had learned about the quintessential Amin: Amin had been a soldier, Whitaker said, so he tried to destroy his enemies. The problem was: "As president, he (could) decide who his enemies are."

Fast-forward to today, three-and-a-half decades after Amin's rule. For most Ugandans, he is a bad memory in the fog of history. That is too bad. The man who has now ruled Uganda for 28 years, Yoweri Museveni, is sounding an awful lot like Amin when it comes to a new enemy Uganda has its sights on: gays.

Museveni like Amin

Museveni even looked a little like Amin - rotund, round faced - as he addressed cheering crowds recently in his first public comments on a draconian new anti-gay law. The law imposes life in prison for homosexual acts. It requires Ugandans to report gays to the police. An earlier version, at least, was nixed: It would have condemned active gays to death.

He shrugged off cuts in aid as well as condemnation of the law by President Obama and others. "We don't need aid ... because a country like Uganda is one of the richest on earth."

The presidentially sanctioned gay bashing not only accelerates an anti-gay tide across Africa, it also has echoes of when Amin turned against groups of people - Asians, certain tribes. Amin's demonization unleashed an open season of violence on them.

Museveni, like Amin, is using anti-gay hysteria to shore up his political fortunes. Museveni's rule, once promising, has gone on too long. Yes, he is a U.S. ally. Yes, he has kept Uganda stable. Yes, he is a bulwark against Muslim fundamentalism. Ugandan soldiers are fighting Muslim terrorists in Somalia. But his rule is now marked by corruption, nepotism and the suppression of rivals. Casting the anti-gay law as a stand by God-fearing Uganda against a decadent West diverts attention from corruption scrutiny.

Here's the bigger tragedy. It is no secret that most Ugandans are against homosexuality, as much of the U.S. was, say, a century ago. Just 4% of Ugandans want their society to accept homosexuality. Until now, that has rarely translated into violence or a witch hunt. "We know gays are there; they have places they hang out; we just don't want it in our faces," was typical of remarks I heard as I recently traveled Uganda.

Museveni's Amin-like gay bashing risks changing that.

American evangelicals

An added irony is that the push didn't exactly well up from within Uganda. It has been promoted by U.S. evangelicals - as a new movie, God Loves Uganda, documents.

A better approach would be to follow South Africa's example and work to turn the tide in a more enlightened - and better-informed - direction. Ugandans could, at the very least, benefit from accurate information about homosexuality - of the kind that has helped curbed rampant HIV-AIDS.

Rather than taunting gays, rather than stirring up misinformed hatred, a true statesman would work, at the very least, to repeal the over-the-top anti-gay law. While not unique - Uganda is one of 38 African countries to outlaw homosexuality, almost half the 78 worldwide - its penalties are the most draconian.

How to pressure Museveni to do this? Cutting aid is one tool. But alone, it can be counterproductive, especially because Uganda is poised to gain new oil wealth. But Museveni should be discouraged from inciting violence against a vulnerable group for his own political ends. He should be discouraged from taking a leaf out of Amin's playbook.

Perhaps The Last King of Scotland should make a movie comeback in Uganda, to underscore why.

Louise Branson, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is a former USA TODAY editorial writer. She grew up in Uganda, where her father was commandant of the Uganda Police College.